Katniss' final cake
by KieraMcGill
Summary: It's the 74th annual Hunger Games and Katniss and Peeta have made it to the final three with Cato but only one goes home, which one will it be? Which one will survive? You'll have to read the story to find out...


I jump down from the tree and gracefully land on all fours. From the sound of his footsteps Cato must only be at the bottom of the hill. I don't dare rise even though the grass around me would easily clear my head whilst standing. Instead I slowly move backwards with my eyes focused on a point where I assume Cato will appear from. I cautiously start to turn, but I don't take my eyes off that point. Once I have turned round so that the footsteps are coming from behind me I turn my head around and come face to face with a pair of dazzlingly bright blue eyes.

The scream comes out before I can stop it so instead I stuff my fist into my mouth to stifle the sound and bite down hard. It hurts but its working. Once I have eventually calmed myself down I manage to say "Peeta, what are you doing? Your going to get me killed". The emotion in his eyes suddenly changes from relief to concern. "I've been looking for you" he says innocently. I can't help but let the anger ebb away and in its place is a pang of guilt. He has been looking for me. I hadn't bothered looking for him when the rule change was announced because Cato had said he was practically dead. If Cato thought that hunting him down was a waste of time then he must have severely injured him. But he looks fine, well apart from some cuts and bruises, and then my immediate attention is directed to a deep wound on his upper left thigh. Peeta's voice brings me back to reality "Katniss, who's left? I didn't get a good look at the faces last night". For a moment we sit in silence and I try to find my voice and it comes eventually "Just Cato". His eyes flood with relief again and he loosens his shoulders. I don't understand his calmness of my latest comment but I don't say anything.

There is silence between us until a crunching sound comes from behind me. I forgot that Cato was behind me when I ran into Peeta. He has most likely heard my scream and is coming to kill us both. I start to crawl away from the sound but Peeta grabs my wrist and pulls me back. "Why are you running away from him?" I'm slightly startled by this. "Because he's trying to kill us" I answer. I can't help thinking that he is joking but the look in his eyes says otherwise. "Why don't you just kill him with one of your arrows?". It annoys me that Peeta thinks I can just send arrows flying through the air at any angle or in any circumstances. "Because I won't be able to get a good aim at him in this long grass. I'll have to climb a tree or something". Peeta thinks this over and then says "OK, let's find a good tree then and gets this over with".

We crawl for about a quarter of an hour before the tall grass ends and the forest begins. I find a tall tree and start to climb, it's only when I'm about 6 feet up that I remember that Peeta won't be able to climb with his injured leg. I decide that we should stay at the bottom of the tree until we hear Cato and then I'll climb up to get a good aim at him. We sit and eat some rabbit that I caught with some of Rue's berries. Eventually Peeta falls asleep and I sit leaning against the tree trunk with my loaded bow positioned in case Cato makes an unexpected appearance. He doesn't.

It's early hours of the morning when Peeta finally wakes up and it's still quite cold. He sits up next to me and leans his back against the tree. "Are you tired?" he asks, I am tired but I don't want to leave Peeta defenceless if Cato should come so I just say "No, just a little cold". I regret the last part almost immediately because Peeta takes off his coat and wraps it around me. "That better?" he asks I just nod at him. He seems convinced. It's a while before I finally say "Peeta, you said at the interview you'd had a crush on me forever... " I trail off I'm not good at this sort of thing. "Yes" Peeta says to fill the silence "When did forever start?". Peeta sighs thoughtfully and then says " Oh, lets see. I guess the first day of school. We were five. You had on a red plaid dress and your hair… it was in two braids instead of one. My father pointed you out when we were waiting to line up". I can't help but blush at what Peeta has just said ."Your father? Why?" I ask. "He said, 'See that girl?' I wanted to marry her mother, but she ran away with a coal miner'". I look at him unbelievingly "What? Your making that up!". He smiles and says "No, true story, and I said 'A coal miner? Why did she want a coal miner if she could have you?' and he said, 'Because when he sings... even the birds stop to listen'". That's right they do. I mean they did. He had a beautiful singing voice. "So that day" Peeta continues "in the music assembly, the teacher asked who knew the valley song . Your hand shot right up into the air. She stood you up on a stool and had you sing for us. And I swear, every bird outside the windows fell silent". "Oh please" I say laughing. Peeta shakes his head and says "No, it happened. And right when your song ended, I knew – just like your mother I was a goner". Goner? What does he mean by goner? There is an awkward moment where neither of us says anything and then out of nowhere I start to cry.

The memory is still so fresh because it was only a few days before the rules were changed. I was gathering berries and had heard a noise from behind me. I turned around and he was already standing there, knife out ready to throw it at me. I had armed my bow but he didn't move he just smiled at me and said "Put it away Everdeen I'm not going to hurt you". His words were almost humorous because we are part of the Hunger Games and the whole point of them is to watch children slaughter one another. I hadn't lowered my bow and he was moving ever so slightly towards me. I wanted to look away from him, to run into the trees that surrounded us but my muscles wouldn't move. He then started to circle me laughing, I didn't understand why he hadn't killed me yet. What suspense the capitol viewers must have been in. I could imagine them sitting on the edge of their seats waiting for the girl on fire to fall to the ground with a knife in her chest. But I didn't. He finally got within stabbing distance but the knife still hadn't left his hand. He stopped in front of me and put the blade to my face, I turned my head slightly so that his hand fell back down to his side. He just laughed again. "I told you Everdeen I'm not going to hurt you. Well not just now at least, unless you make a little promise with me" I just stared at him, confused. What would he gain by me making a promise with him. My question was soon answered "You might not know this Everdeen but you little _boyfriend_ was a part of an alliance with us" I did know this, I had seen them together on the first night when Peeta killed that girl from District 8. "Do you know what he said to us Everdeen? He said that he would help us find you" I knew that this was probably true and that Peeta only said it to make the careers take him on as an ally but I still felt slightly betrayed. "I have to admit he fooled us for quite a while but when you sent that tracker-jacker nest down on us and he went back for you, I knew he was a threat and gave him a nice deep cut on his leg" he says smirking. I remember that day when I didn't know what was real and what wasn't because of the tracker-jacker venom, I had went back for the bow and arrows and Peeta had came out of the woods and had told me to run. But I still didn't know what he wanted from me though until he said "So this is what I want you to do, if you find him you keep him for me and I'll kill him for you. Wouldn't want to spoil your relationship now would we?". I stood there loathing him as he held out his hand. I didn't shake it. "Come now Everdeen, you know I could easily kill you right now" he let his word sink in before adding "So do we have a deal?". I nodded and he walked away back into the woods smirking.

Peeta looks at me with his sparkling blue eyes and asks "Katniss what's wrong?" I pull my hands up over my face. He takes my wrists and tries to remove my hands but I just reach up and grab me hair to stop him. His strong baker's hands are gentle when they ease my fingers open so that I don't pull out clumps of hair from my head. He soothingly wipes the tears from my cheeks and kisses me lightly on the forehead. "What's wrong?" he repeats I try to speak but my sobs stop me. I take some deep breaths to calm myself down and then say "I made a de-al with Cat-o he said tha-at if I promised to let him ki-l-ll you he'd let me go-o" I start to sob even harder now. Peeta takes my hands in his and makes soothing sounds to calm me down again. When I've stopped crying Peeta says "Why did he make a deal with you?" I rack my mind for an answer "Because you made them look stupid by pretending to be their ally". Peeta closes his eyes and sighs "I'm sorry" I don't know why he is apologizing. "Why?" I ask him. He opens his eyes again and says "Because I shouldn't have formed an alliance with them I should have came and found you" that wasn't what I was expecting him to say. "Listen" I tell him "if Haymitch had wanted to us to pair up he would have said so and besides you did find me" I smile at him and his expression lightens. I suddenly realize we have been sitting here for a few hours and there is no sign of Cato anywhere. Peeta must be thinking the same thing because he says "Do you think we should go find him?" I shake my head "Its better if we stay here because we can see and hear anything within a 30 meter radios so we'll have the upper hand if Cato comes"

A few more hours pass before we give into our hunger I decide not to use my arrows to hunt game so instead I send Peeta to gather some berries to eat. I stay at the tree with my bow positioned ready to shoot if anything should it go after Peeta. As I sit against the tree trunk my eye lids starts to become heavy and I realize I haven't slept in over 16 hours. I slip peacefully into a dream about Rue and following a mockingjay into the woods.

I'm woken by a sharp pain in the back of my head and before I can even tighten my grip on my bow I'm being hoisted to my feet by my hair. His other hand holds a knife that rests on my shoulder. Peeta is standing in the bushes just in front of me still picking berries. Cato pulls my head back even further so that if Peeta turns around he will see my face. I slowly move my hand down to my belt and take the knife from it and then whisper "Peeta… Peeta" he can't hear me, I say it a bit loader "Peeta". He turns around and drops the berries he had been collecting. I whisper "Run!" and plunge the blade of my knife into Cato's side. As he falls to the ground he cries in pain and his left hand releases my hair while his right falls from my shoulder. The motion is so quick I might have missed it if it hadn't been for the searing pain and the blood trickling down my neck.

Peeta runs over and finishes of Cato easily while he lies on the ground. I hear the cannon fire and I know he's dead. I lie motionless on the ground, my head throbbing. My vision slides in and out of focus making me feel dizzy. Peeta kneels down beside me "Katniss your going to be OK, the capitol will fix you" he says reassuringly. He rips the sleeve off his shirt and holds it against my neck. Soon the piece of fabric is drenched in blood so Peeta takes it and wrings it dry. The amount of blood that comes from it is sickening. I can feel my organs starting to shut down. I look at Peeta and say "Take good care of them for me". This makes him start screaming "Hurry up, she's going to die! GET US OUT OF THIS GOD DAMB ARENA!". He takes my face in his blood covered hands and says "Katniss don't go Prim needs you, Gale needs you." he kisses me "I need you" this causes tears to stream down my face. I stare at him and feel my eye lids get extremely heavy. I've lost feeling in my arms and legs now as well. I know that the birds around me are making lots of strange sounds and the wind is rustling the leaves but I can't feel, smell or taste anything any more. Then my eyes close and I'm devoured by the darkness until Peeta shakes me lightly and they open again. "Peeta" I say causing more blood to come from the wound in my neck "I love you". His eyes fill with tears "I love you too" he answers in a shaky voice. My eyes shut once again and I feel Peeta rest one of his hands on my cheek. He's crying. Every noise around me becomes five times loader than it is. And then it all goes silent.

Silence, sweet sweet silence. I now fully appreciate the saying 'Silence is golden'. It's so peaceful here, there are no birds, no dying children and no Capitol. But I am starting to feel a bit lonely and then I see him. My father. He's standing over to my right with his arms outstretched. I run at him and jump into his arms, he swings me around before planting a kiss on my forehead. I want to run home and tell my mother and Prim that he's OK, that they'll meet him again eventually. And then I think I will eventually see them and Peeta and Gale again too.

I never knew I would enjoy death so much.

Peeta's POV

It's been two weeks since I've been home and I am still grieving her. The sight of her mother and Prim when I came home was so painful but it was nothing compared to the sight of Gale. The hatred and pain in his eyes. And then there was my family, my brothers looked the same way they did when they said their goodbyes before the games, my mother was just shocked at the sight of me and my father cried for a few days after my homecoming. I don't regret letting Katniss' mother and Prim live in my house in the Victor's Village besides I don't need it. Being back in the bakery has been nice but it will never fill the hole in my heart that belonged to Katniss. My father wasn't surprised when I spent two days in my room sketching but he did get a little curious when I started to ice the same flower on every cake that I made and eventually made a display for the window with the same flowers everywhere. It was made up of eight single cupcakes with the Katniss flower on them surrounding an ordinary circular cake in the centre. With the fiery orange lettering on it spelling out _Katniss, my girl on fire._


End file.
